I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than a year)

Pros

Here’s what I love most about working at Centric: I can be creative and try new things. It's quite refreshing to work at a company where leaders actually encourage you to brainstorm and implement new ideas.

As if that's not good enough, I get to work with people across the country who have diverse, unique personal and professional experiences. For someone who loves to learn, nothing beats learning from your colleagues.

As a bonus: I get to do what I love! I also get to set my own schedule and processes to get things done. What's not to love about that?

Cons

This is a great place to work for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit. People who can get up in the morning and set their own timeline. People who don't need to be told what to do because they know what to do. Self-starters succeed here!

Advice to Management

Keep up the good work in promoting a healthy work-life balance, listening to our viewpoints, and encouraging us to offer fresh perspectives!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Centric. As someone with exposure and the opportunity to work with all of our Business Units across the country you have a unique vantage point into Centric that is sometimes harder to get if you are in one of our BUs and the majority of your time is at a client site. From both your pros and cons it's great to see that you are fully experiencing our culture in a positive way. To be sure, much of that is due to your work ethic and the quality of work being created. By hiring highly motivated and highly skilled people we are able to treat them like adults and support their strengths.

One bit of caution to candidates reading this would be that while we are very supportive of a flexible and healthy work-life balance it's important to remember that when we are serving clients the life of a consultant on difficult project with tight deadlines sometimes doesn't enable complete flexibility in how and when the work needs to be compelted.... MoreLess

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than 3 years)

Pros

- Most employees work from home- Self-Manage PTO - no limit per se- Everyone I have met in this company is top of their game, highly motivated, and really nice people- Very competitive salaries and great benefits- Two annual company get-togethers, usually in Ohio- Annual company party, this year a weekend in San Francisco all-paid. Two years ago it was Puerto Vallarta- Flat structure, no company hierarchy- A couple of the company's core values are Work/Life Balance, and Diversity

Cons

For candidates, getting into the company can be pretty tough. Expect to have 3-5 interviews.Don't assume that an inside referral will benefit you.

Thank you for your feedback. We work hard throughout Centric to value our employees and I am glad you truly feel that.

You mention that our base salary is not as competitive compared to others . This is a tough conversation to have in a post, so I do welcome you to reach out and talk through your situation with our BU lead. We often talk with people individually on where their compensation is, where it stands in the market, and where people want it to be.

For us, we find it best to start these discussions by understanding your career passions, values, and goals and then going from there. We are comfortable discussing details on your compensation and how it compares to the service we use for market compensation comparison and our own experiences/thoughts. An open, transparent discussion is the best way to work through this topic. I’m happy to coordinate this if you would like.

We are here for the long haul at Centric. We aspire to provide more than market average compensation and ensure we can endure swings in the market for all employees. I’m happy to discuss how we use specific targets and balanced growth strategies to make this happen.

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than a year)

Pros

The culture at Centric and the Chicago BU in particular is unlike anything I've seen in my career. From the founders to the newest contractor, I see everyone treated with respect and appreciation. Consulting is hard work, and there are frustrations and long hours, but that always feels to me like it's outside the team. Inside, we support and celebrate each other, and that makes a big difference in quality of life - when work (or life) is hard, I know my management and colleagues have my back. Everyone has the same goals: do our best for our clients, learn, have fun, build something we can be proud of, take care of our families and communities.

Cons

In a flat organization of mostly experienced consultants, there's less proactive training and guidance than other companies, which can be jarring if this isn't your background. You'll get all the help you need if you ask - but you have to ask, and you have to know that you're not bothering anyone by asking. For the same reasons, a lot of the knowledge is unconscious - leaders "just know" how to be consultants, and might have trouble translating their intuition to instruction. Because so much of our recruiting is through personal networks, we have work to do on diversity, but I believe our leadership wants to do that work.

Advice to Management

Stick with the transparency, the teamwork, and the long game. The communication at this summer's meeting about our challenges and opportunities gave me even greater confidence in our company and leadership. As we grow, remember that even the most experienced employees may not have a consulting background - consider offering "Consulting 201" for those people. Above all, keep a laser focus on keeping our positive, respectful culture as we grow - too many companies change when they hit our size.

What a great post. Thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts into writing. The Chicago BU really does a great job of exemplifying the Centric culture by providing unmatched experiences for employees and clients.

All true about training. But I'm excited about what's available in Degreed (our online training content management tool). The depth of content grows continually. And I know there are plans to build on our consulting 101 classes. Essentially taking them to the next level. I'd also encourage you to share your direct training feedback with Heather Bahorich, Centric's full time training coordinator and master of all things Degreed.

I greatly appreciate your feedback. Diversity is a key imperative for our organization, and I want you to know that your post has driven me to revisit the solid accomplishments we have made in the area of diversity over the last few years and also consider the work that we still have to do in this area. I have reached out to ask others about your post – men, women and other diverse groups within Centric – to get their perspective and understand where we still have blind spots. We like to focus on having the best person at every level of our organization and look at a culture fit which includes diversity, competencies and core values in hiring and promoting people at Centric. I would welcome a conversation with you personally to hear your story and to add it as a key input to improving upon an inclusive and diverse culture. I would love to understand if you are going to another company, and why you chose that company, especially if they had a special D&I program that drove your choice. If you are open to a personal conversation, please don’t hesitate to call me directly. Thanks! Larry... MoreLess

Thank you for this positive feedback. As you know, we set out with a core purpose to create unmatched experiences for our clients and our people every day. Your feedback indicates we are working hard at living up to that purpose.Thank you for your contribution to making Centric successful. If you see or experience any road bumps along the way please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly as we can only make improvements if we know where to focus our efforts... MoreLess

Thank you for sharing some feedback. It's nice to know that even as a former employee you have positive comments to share. Hopefully, we will cross paths in the future either working with you as a client or welcoming you back into Centric.Regarding your con, I hope that's not the reason you left. Yes, salaries can always be higher however we evaluate the market 2x each year to ensure we are competitive and have a philosophy that we don't want people to leave for higher pay to fulfill the same role elsewhere.... MoreLess

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. There is a LOT of activity in our Seattle office these days so it's great to know you are still feeling a strong sense of culture and that the team is still supportive of your work/life balance. Those are things that are sometimes easy to let go by the wayside in the midst of growth & change but we have always thought that they are foundational to the long-term success of Centric.Specifically addressing your "con" is a bit tougher without knowing more details. At a high level, it's true FTEs and Contractors are doing the same amount of work but there are multiple variables to be considered. when talking about total benefits. A few of them include Base pay, the opportunity for bonuses, investment in training, job continuity when projects come to an end, career growth opportunities and inclusion in Centric-wide events. Overall, we want to make sure that we are always fair and providing anyone working with Centric a great experience. If you have specific concerns you would like to talk about, or ideas on how we can improve, please feel free to contact me (Matt Henretta) directly or reach out to the leadership team in the Seattle Business Unit.... MoreLess

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than 3 years)

Pros

Great culture. Focused on delivering the right solutions for clients. Willing to turn away opportunities where they don't make sense for our people or for the client. Flat organizational structure and open to ideas.

Cons

Flat culture is good, but may be too loose for some. You need to be self directed and willing to contribute in the delivery to the client, while contributing to the overall organization culture and growth. This generally requires 45-50 hours a week. This is usually worth it -- lots of great people and fun, in addition to hard work.

Advice to Management

More structure would be beneficial. Would like to see more established career paths.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and share your thoughts. I would have to agree with your "Pros" and your "Cons". I came from a highly structured background before joining Centric and my style of work leans towards definition/operational consistency. The flat structure is definitely hard for some, however, I can say that once I learned to work within the structure it gave me a different perspective and I have come to appreciate the positives I had previously found troubling. The largest of which is that there is little to no admin that doesn't have a specific purpose.Regarding your comment around seeing a more established career path I would be happy to talk to you live. Just this past year we reviewed our existing career model documents and leveraged a panel of Sr Managers to help improve them so if there is something we missed I definitely want to get that addressed. Please feel free to call me directly and/or shoot me an e-mail. Sincerely, Matt Henretta... MoreLess

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Company Updates

“It’s not entirely correct to call Centric Consulting a company without walls, but it’s close." In an article by MeritMatters, President Larry English speaks about the thought process behind Centric’s virtual office model. http://glassdoor.com/slink.htm?key=vIJAB